What Is ‘the Supreme Christmas Poem in the English Language’? Win a Book of Poetry If You Know

Later in the week I’ll have a Quote of the Day in which a well-known American writer talks about the poem he calls “the supreme Christmas poem in the English language.” Do you know what it is? You can win a copy of Baseball Haiku: American and Japanese Haiku and Senryu (Norton, $19.95), edited with translations by Cor van den Heuvel and Nanae Tamura, if you’re the first to answer correctly. Baseball Haiku is an excellent new collection of haiku about baseball that transcends the sport with a long introduction (and commentary on individual poems) that helps to demystify haiku in general www.oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/10/29/.

To enter the contest, send an e-mail message with the answer and your mailing address to the address on the “Contact” page of this site. I’ll send Baseball Haiku to the first U.S. resident who responds correctly by e-mail. If you don’t want to try to win but would like to show people what a genius you are — or nominate the poem that you see as “the supreme Christmas poem” in English — why not leave a comment? The Quote of the Day and answer will be posted by 5 p.m. Eastern Time Friday.

“The Journey of the Magi” is a great suggestion for serious poetry readers looking for a Christmas poem. I liked your comments on it. Your hyperlink didn’t show up, so I’ll add it here: http://www.paisleyandplaid.wordpress.com/2007/11/29/. (To add a hyperlink to a WordPress comment, put http:// in front of the URL and a slash after it. To link to a specific post, not just the blog in general, follow the form I used for your dates.) Thanks for again for the idea and also for raising it early enough in the season to give people time to find it well before Christmas.

I’m going to withhold all comments on the nominees until Friday, because if I rule certain poems “out” or “in” in the comments and e-mail, I might give clues to people who haven’t guessed yet (which the first responders didn’t have). But the winner will still be the first person got the poem right in a note to the e-mail address on the “Contact” page.
Jan